Growing up in a Yorkshire family with farming in their blood, Lesley Wild found that the food on her plate reflected the rhythms of the changing seasons.

The notion of 'seasonality' has become fashionable among foodies, but Lesley says it has been around forever.

"It was simply the way we lived," she says. "We were in touch with the rhythm of the year and eagerly anticipated the arrival of vegetables and fruit as they became available," she says.

"Preserving food for consumption over winter was a challenge. Hams were cured and hung in our pantry, root vegetables were gathered into piles and covered with earth, and apples were stored on trays in our outhouse. The shelves were lined with jars of jam, and bottled fruit.

I remember well the arrival of our first freezer, allowing us to enjoy fresh garden peas, beans and soft fruit through winter for the first time."

For 20 years, Lesley has been the creative talent behind the dishes served at Bettys Café Tea Rooms. She is married to Jonathan Wild, chairman of Yorkshire company Bettys, and is the founder of Bettys Cookery School.

She has celebrated the dishes she cooks for her family and friends - inspired by the seasonal food she grew up on - in a book of more than 100 recipes covering everything from bread and jam making to suppers and salads, home baking and sophisticated entertaining.

Packed with photographs and step-by-step instructions, it also includes some of the dishes found on Bettys menus.

A Year of Family Recipes features dishes using fresh, seasonal ingredients from Lesley's organic garden.

"This book is about the way I cook at home," says Lesley. "I have collected and developed the recipes over many years. Some have been handed down by my mother and Swiss father-in-law. Others are based on food I've enjoyed travelling abroad. Every dish has been made in my own kitchen, photographed in our house or garden.

"I'm not a chef, just a simple cook, and as a child I certainly never imagined that I would have a culinary career. Yet, looking back, it seems inevitable that I'd develop a passion for cooking.

"Good food has always been important in our family; my paternal grandfather's family owned a large vegetable garden which supplied produce for their village shop. My father had a farm in the Yorkshire Wolds. My Irish mother was the daughter of a sheep farmer, she embarked on a career in catering, settled in Yorkshire and married my father.

"The same vegetable garden that had provided an income for my grandparents' generation became my parents' kitchen garden, supplying fresh fruit and vegetables."

The book took Lesley a year to write as she "waited for the right moment to use the fruit and vegetables that Jonathan and I grow in our garden. Eating seasonally ensures that you use the freshest and best-quality ingredients. That's what I learned as a child."

Shortly before Lesley and Jonathan married, he joined his family's business, Bettys & Taylors. Lesley was later running the Bettys side, designing bread, cakes and menus, while Jonathan concentrated on tea and coffee importing.

They were students when they met. "He invited me to a hog roast at his college," says Lesley. "When I arrived, I found him looking panic stricken. Are you any good at making potato salad?' he asked.

"I spent the afternoon slicing potatoes and mixing them with mayonnaise. This was a pivotal moment; I'd proved myself in the kitchen and as willing assistant."

  • A Year of Family Recipes, published by Great Northern, is available, priced £25, from Bettys Cookery School, the six Bettys Café Tea Rooms in Harrogate, York, Ilkley and Northallerton, or at bettysbypost.com